Hall elements are used advantageously in electrical meters or wattmeters to measure a magnetic field produced by an electric current. Such integrable Hall elements are known in the prior art such as EP 0 148 330 A2. The Hall element, disclosed in EP 0 148 330 A2 is called a vertical Hall element and it measures a magnetic field component which is parallel to the major surface of the Hall element. Another type of integrable Hall element is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,107. This reference discloses a horizontal Hall Element which is used to measure a magnetic field component which is perpendicular to the major surface of the Hall element.
It is the objective of the instant invention to disclose Hall elements of any desired size, having relatively little nonlinearity and being characterized by relatively little 1/f noise, despite the presence of very thin semiconductor layers. For the invention, the effective length of a vertical Hall element is considerably greater than the thickness of the semiconductor layer.